California's assisted suicide deaths surge. People with disabilities steered to death.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Article: California assisted suicide deaths increase by 63% in 2022. (Link)

James Reinl wrote an excellent article that was published in the Daily Mail on August 15 on the 63% surge in 2022 California assisted suicide deaths. Reinl reports on the data but he also received input from myself and several people with disabilities for his report. Reinl states:

Record numbers of people ended their lives in California last year in America's biggest doctor-assisted suicide program, after lawmakers made it easier for residents to get their hands on lethal drugs.

Last year, 1,270 people got fatal prescriptions under the state's End of Life Option Act (ELOA), and 853 people used them to end their lives, the California Department of Public Health said in its annual report.

That's a jump from 863 scripts and 522 deaths the previous year.

The surge in assisted suicides came after California lawmakers in 2021 backed a law that shortened from 15 days to 48 hours the time needed to apply for a cocktail of suicide drugs. That law took effect in January.

Matt Valliere

Matt Valliere, director of the Patients' Rights Action Fund, told Reinl:

'It's no wonder that the number of assisted suicides soared in the year after the California legislature effectively removed the original 15-day cooling-off period,'

'Most Medi-Cal patients cannot get a mental health consult in less than 72 hours and are not guaranteed palliative care, but now, they can get suicide drugs in 48 hours and the state will pay for it every time.'

I was questioned by Reinl on the possible under-reporting of assisted suicide in California:

Alex Schadenberg

Alex Schadenberg, director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, warned that many US assisted-suicide programs have unreliable data, as not all doctors accurately report scripts and deaths back to the state health body.

In California last year, doctors wrote 294 prescriptions for which there was an 'unknown ingestion status,' says the 15-page report.

That could mean... that life-threatening drugs are sitting unused in a drawer, or that the patient used them to kill themselves and the death was not recorded.

'This self-reporting system makes it is impossible to know when a doctor does not send in a report or abuses the law,' said Schadenberg.

Reinl commented on the lawsuit that was filed in April to overturn the California Assisted Suicide Act:

Several campaign groups for disabled people earlier this year filed a lawsuit to declare California's ELOA 'unlawful and unconstitutional' because it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In their suit, they complain about the bias they faced trying to get health care during the coronavirus pandemic and say the system is too quick to offer assisted suicides.

People with disabilities often struggle to get the medical care they need and, as a result, may be quick to seek assisted suicide as an option, lawyers in the case say.

Ingrid Tischer (left)

Reinl interviewed Ingrid Tischer and Diane Coleman, from Not Dead Yet, a group representing people with disabilities that are directly involved with the lawsuit:

Ingrid Tischer, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, who lives with a form of muscular dystrophy, says doctors were unwilling to treat her properly when she contracted pneumonia during COVID-19.

'The law gets in your head. That's what happened to me,' says Tischer.

A non-disabled person is steered towards suicide prevention. And the disabled person is steered toward a suicide prescription.'

Diane Coleman

Diane Coleman, a woman with neuromuscular disabilities who has used a wheelchair since childhood, and now heads the national rights group Not Dead Yet, is also involved in the lawsuit.

'Assisted suicide is just one of the many symptoms of an ableist eugenics society that believes life with a disability is a fate worse than death,' she said.

Reinl also includes interviews with disability leaders, Brianna Hammond, John Kelly and Anita Cameron, and an interview with a man named Christopher, whose father died by assisted suicide in Oregon.

The Suicide Rate is Rising even though the CDC Undercounts Suicides by Not Including Assisted Deaths

This article was published by the National Review online on August 15, 2023.

Wesley Smith

By Wesley J Smith

2021 was among the worst years ever for suicides in the U.S., with 2022 looking to have been even worse. According to the CDC, in 2021, 48,183 people killed themselves. That number is projected to increase to 49,449 for 2022 once the data are tabulated.

That’s a terrible tragedy. But it is even worse than that because assisted suicides are not included in the suicide statistics.

Why? Because the laws legalizing assisted suicide in most states — which is euphemistically referred to as “medical aid in dying” (MAID) or “death with dignity” — redefine a doctor-prescribed overdose as other than what it is: suicide. Indeed, most of these laws require doctors to lie about the actual cause as the underlying disease on death certificates rather than the reality of an ingested overdose of barbiturates. Some laws even define these suicides as natural deaths. And states do not include assisted deaths in their own suicide statistics.

You can call a dung beetle a butterfly, but it remains a dung beetle. The term suicide defines what is done, not why. In other words, assisted suicides are as much suicides as jumping off a bridge.

I checked the most recent state statistics of assisted-suicide deaths compiled in the ten states and D.C. where doctors prescribe death legally — available at this link. The reporting from the states is not complete, but close enough to get an idea about the total assisted-suicide toll. I found that in 2021, close to 1,400 people died by assisted suicide in the U.S. That means the actual number of suicides in the U.S. in 2021 was just under 50,000 and will surpass that number in 2022.

The CDC’s statistics do not mention assisted suicide. That’s a mistake. Normalizing suicide as an answer to suffering caused by illness, studies have shown, normalizes and increases suicides more generally.

The CDC should add “aid in dying” to its suicide statistics and include that category of people who should receive prevention services. Doing otherwise will only make our suicide tragedy even worse going forward.

Similar articles:

• Suicide deaths increasing. Elderly Americans have the highest suicide rate (Link).
•  Suicide contagion (Link).

California assisted suicide deaths surge by 63% in 2022.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The 2022 California assisted suicide report indicates that the number of assisted suicide deaths increased by more than 63% and the number of prescriptions for lethal drugs increased by 47% from the 2021 report.

As with previous years, the report implies that the deaths were voluntary (self-administered), but the information in the report does not address that subject.

In 2022 there were 853 reported assisted suicide deaths and 1270 lethal cocktail prescriptions written which was up from 522 reported assisted suicide deaths and 863 lethal prescriptions written in 2021.

The report stated that 173 people who were approved for assisted suicide died from their underlying illness or other causes and 294 people received a lethal drug cocktail but their ingestion status is unknown.

When the ingestion status is unknown, the person received the lethal drug cocktail but the California Department of Public Health does not know whether or not the person died by assisted suicide. How many of the 294 people whose ingestion status is unknown actually died by assisted suicide?

Under-reporting of assisted suicide deaths and abuse of the law is covered-up by the reporting system. The California assisted suicide data comes from the reports submitted by the doctors who approved and prescribed the lethal assisted suicide drug cocktail. This self-reporting system makes it is impossible to know when a doctor does not send in a report or abuses the law.

The data in the report indicates that 89% reported assisted suicide deaths, the person was white, 6.3% were Asian, 2.8% were Hispanic, .5% were Black and .5% were native American.

California population data indicates that: 39% are Hispanic, 35% are White, 15% are Asian and 5% are Black. Clearly, assisted suicide is an issue of white privilege.

One reason for the 63% increase in assisted suicide deaths in 2022 is in 2021 California legislators expanded the assisted suicide law by passing SB 380 which:

• Reduced the mandatory 15-day waiting period between the two oral requests to 48 hours. It is important to note that 78.7% of those who received lethal prescription in 2022 waited less than 15 days.
  
• Eliminated the original law’s sunset clause, which eliminated the requirement to review the law.
• Forced doctors who oppose assisted suicide to refer the person who requests assisted suicide.
  

In response to the passing of SB 380, in March 2022, a group of California Doctors launched a court case to protect their conscience rights (Link to the article). 

In September 2022 U.S. District Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha ruled that the California End of Life Options Act, amended by SB 380, violated the First Amendment rights of doctors by requiring them to participate in assisted suicide. (Link to the article).

In April 2023, The United Spinal Association, Not Dead Yet, Institute for Patients’ Rights, Communities Actively Living Independent and Free, Lonnie VanHook, and Ingrid Tischer have launched a lawsuit to strike down the California assisted suicide law with the goal of the case going to the United States Supreme Court to strike down assisted laws throughout the US. (Link to the complaint).

The case asserts that the assisted suicide act is a discriminatory scheme, which creates a two-tiered medical system in which people who are suicidal receive radically different treatment responses by their physicians and protections from the State depending on whether the person has what the physician deems to be a “terminal disease”—which, by definition, is a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. (Link to the article). 

The 2022 California assisted suicide report amended the data in the 2021 report. The 2022 report stated that there were 522 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2021 while the 2021 report stated there were 486 reported assisted suicide deaths. Since California releases it's assisted suicide report in July, the data should be more accurate.

Swiss study: Legalizing assisted suicide does not lessen the number of tragic "common" suicide deaths.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A study published on August 9 by the journal Cancer Medicine investigates the claim of the assisted suicide lobby that legalizing assisted suicide (AS) lessens other violent "common suicide" (CS) deaths. The study concludes that:

The assumption that, with the increasingly accessible option of AS for patients with cancer, CS suicide will become “superfluous” cannot be confirmed. There are strong reasons indicating that situations and circumstances of cancer-associated CS are different from those for cancer-associated AS.

The study examined data from 1999 - 2018 indicated that the number of (AS) deaths among people with cancer approximately doubled every five years while percentage of deaths by cancer remained almost unchanged. The number of (CS) deaths represent a small fraction of cancer deaths, nonetheless (CS) deaths among cancer patients remained almost unchanged.

There were 8738 reported assisted suicide during the period of the study. There were (1999 - 2003) 582 assisted suicides (0.2% of deaths), (2004 - 2008) 1161 assisted suicides (0.4%), (2009 - 2013) 2175 assisted suicides (0.7%), (2014 - 2018) 4820 assisted suicides (1.5%).

The summary of the study stated:

The law in Switzerland permits non-selfish assisted suicide. The analysis covering 1999–2018 shows cancer as the prominent disease linked with AS (3,580 cases, 41.0% of AS). However, cancer accounted for a small fraction of patients (832 people, 3.8% of CS).

The study reveals a doubling of AS cases in cancer patients every five years. By 2014–2018, cancer-associated AS rose to 2.3% of all cancer-related deaths. In contrast, cancer-related CS decreased from 1999 to 2003 and remained steady from 2009 to 2018.

The study indicated that people with cancer who died by (AS) are different than the group of people with cancer who died by (CS). The study stated:

However, differences between the suicide types exist not only in terms of underlying situations and associated diseases. The two forms also differ significantly by age and gender distributions. While AS in Switzerland tends to be chosen more often by women (57% of cases in the observation period 1999–2018), CS is committed primarily by men with significantly higher incidences, nearly 75% of all cases, than women (in this context, however, the gender paradox of suicidal behavior must also be noted: females have been found to have a disproportionately higher rate of suicide attempts than men). While AS is a predominantly geriatric phenomenon (the median age in the above-mentioned 20-year period was 78 years; if cancer-associated AS cases are excluded, it was as high as 81 years), CS, on the other hand, is committed by significantly younger people (median age: 52 years).

The average age of cancer patients who die by (AS) is 78 and primarily female and the average age of cancer patients who die by (CS) is 52 and is primarily male.

Previous studies indicate that legalizing (AS) does not lead to a decrease in (CS). The Swiss study compares (AS) and (CS) in relation to people with cancer and concludes that people with cancer who died by AS or CS were comparatively different groups. 

There is no proof that legalizing assisted suicide results in fewer common suicide deaths.

More articles on the relationship between suicide and assisted suicide

• Be careful what you wish for when you legalize assisted suicide (Link).

• Suicide rates in jurisdictions that have legalized assisted death are not decreasing (Link).

Euthanasia for mental illness?

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Batya Swift Yasgur, MA, LSW wrote a commentary that was published by Medscape on August 3, 2023 entitled: Euthanasia for Mental Illness - Right or Wrong?

Yasgur is offering a discussion on the topic in relation to a recent article by psychiatrist Dinah Miller who stated:

"To offer the option of death facilitated by the very person who is trying to get [patients with serious mental illness] better seems so counter to everything I have learned and contradicts our role as psychiatrists who work so hard to prevent suicide,"

"As psychiatrists, do we offer hope to our most vulnerable patients, or do we offer death? Do we rail against suicide, or do we facilitate it?

The recent story of Kathrin Mentler, a Canadian who lives with chronic suicidal thoughts who was offered euthanasia while she was seeking help during a mental health crisis, places the issue of euthanasia for mental illness in the proper context.

Mentler was told by the counsellor that the mental health system was "completely overwhelmed", that there were no available beds, and the earliest that she could speak with a psychiatrist was November. The discussion with the counsellor continued:

“It was pretty disheartening and made me feel helpless,”

“I’m coming here because I’m looking for help and you’re telling me there is no help.”

That’s when the counsellor asked Mentler if she’d ever considered medically assisted suicide.

Mentler says she was “shocked” and “sickened” because she came to the Access and Assessment Centre for help, “not for recommendations on how to kill myself.”

She says the counsellor explained how MAID worked and said lots of patients asked about it, adding patients don’t “suffer” because they take benzodiazepines before receiving the lethal injection.

The counsellor told Mentler that she was relieved when another patient who was unable to get treatment drowned. Mentler said that the story of a patient who died by drowning “made me feel like my life was worthless or a problem that could be solved if I chose MAID.”

Mentler has filed a complaint with Vancouver Coastal Health and asked for the Access and Assessment Centre to give her her files from that day.

Mixing mental health counselling and treatment with euthanasia undermines the patient's life. 

The patient needs professional help not death.

Catholic hospital hires euthanasia doctor as director of palliative care.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Providence Hospital Kingston

The Catholic Register reported on August 10, 2023 that a Catholic hospital, Providence Hospital in Kingston, Ont., has hired a euthanasia providing doctor to be its Director of Palliative Care. This doctor has stated that every healthcare institution should provide euthanasia and she opposes conscience rights for medical professionals.

Anna Farrow from the Catholic Register reported:

Dr. Danielle Kain is a palliative care specialist who is Associate Professor and Division Co-Chair of Palliative Medicine at Queen’s University. She was appointed to the directorship of palliative care at Providence Hospital in Kingston, Ont., July 1.

The Kingston hospital is one of 22 health care institutions in Ontario under the sponsorship of Catholic Health Sponsors of Ontario (CHSO). The CHSO was formed in 1998 to assume responsibility for institutions formerly under the guidance and management of Congregations of religious Sisters.

Kain is both a staunch proponent and practitioner of euthanasia.

In a 2018 Canadian Medical Association Journal article, Kain and a colleague published a personal reflection on MAID, citing two individual cases in which they were involved.

“At the ensuing team debrief,” Kain wrote, “I was struck by how rare it is for health care providers to be so deeply moved together; we realized that a medically assisted death could be both poignant and peaceful.”

On social media Kain has argued that all publicly funded institutions, including Catholic hospitals, should be compelled to offer MAiD. She has also expressed support for the Effective Referral Policy: doctors who have conscientious objections to euthanasia must refer patients to MAiD-offering doctors. In a 2016 Twitter post, Kain wrote, “making an effective referral is not an infringement of rights.” In Catholic ethics, a MAiD referral would constitute a proximate material cooperation with an immoral act.

A variety of professional associations of Canadian Catholic health care providers, including the Canadian Federation of Catholic Physicians, have made appeals to both the CHSO and the local ordinary, Archbishop Michael Mulhall, to intervene.

Here is the link to the Catholic Register article.

Contact Archbishop Michael Mulhall at: archbishop@archkingston.ca or leave a message at: 613-548-4461

On June 14, 2023 I published the article: Québec forces palliative care homes to provide euthanasia. This article outlines how Québec's expanded euthanasia legislation (Bill 11) requires that all palliative care institutions provide euthanasia.

On June 27, 2023 I published the article: Euthanasia lobby pressures BC government to force Catholic hospitals to provide euthanasia. The euthanasia lobby concerned has a campaign to force St Paul's Hospital in Vancouver to provide euthanasia. This is not the first attempt by the euthanasia lobby to force Catholic hospitals to kill by euthanasia.

The decision to hire Dr. Kain as the Director of Palliative Care at Providence Hospital in Kingston Ontario is particularly concerning considering the pressure that the euthanasia lobby is placing on provincial governments to force religiously affiliated hospitals to provide euthanasia.

Dr. Kain stated in the past that all publicly funded medical institutions should provide euthanasia.

 

• Article by Danielle Kain in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, February 2018. 
• Research article interview of Dr Kain who justified euthanasia for psychological suffering on page 5 - 6.
  

Canadian woman offered euthanasia as a "treatment option" during a mental health crisis.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Kathrin Mentler

Kathrin Mentler (37), a Canadian who lives with chronic suicidal thoughts, recently told Michelle Gamage reporting for The Tyee on August 9 that she was offered euthanasia while seeking help during a mental health crisis.

This is the first clear story of a counsellor offering euthanasia as a treatment option for mental illness and an illustration why there was a 24% increase in British Columbia euthanasia deaths in 2022.

Mentler has experienced depression, anxiety and chronic suicidal thoughts for many years but recently the Assessment Centre at the Vancouver General Hospital offered her euthanasia. Gamage explains:

“That day my goal was to keep myself safe. I was thinking of maybe trying to get myself admitted to hospital because I was in crisis,” she says.

Mentler says she told the counsellor she was scared she’d “never not feel horrible.” She also disclosed her history of mental illness and self-harm.

Mentler was then told by the counsellor that the mental health system was "completely overwhelmed" that there were no available beds and the earliest that she could talk with an available psychiatrist was November.

Gamage reports what happened next:

“It was pretty disheartening and made me feel helpless,” Mentler says. “I’m coming here because I’m looking for help and you’re telling me there is no help.”

That’s when the counsellor asked Mentler if she’d ever considered medically assisted suicide.

Mentler says she was “shocked” and “sickened” because she came to the Access and Assessment Centre for help, “not for recommendations on how to kill myself.”

She says the counsellor explained how MAID worked and said lots of patients asked about it, adding patients don’t “suffer” because they take benzodiazepines before receiving the lethal injection.

The counsellor then told Mentler that she was relieved when another patient who was unable to get treatment drowned. Mentler told Gamage that:

The story — and the counsellor’s “relief” — disturbed Mentler. She says it felt like the counsellor was making a judgement that it was better for that patient to have died.

“That made me feel like my life was worthless or a problem that could be solved if I chose MAID,” Mentler says.

Mentler has filed a complaint with Vancouver Coastal Health and asked for the Access and Assessment Centre to give her her files from that day.

Sonu Gaind

Gamage asked Dr. Sonu Gaind, chief of psychiatry at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto and a professor at the University of Toronto, about his thoughts on this case. Gamage reported Gaind's response:

Making MAID accessible for someone with mental illness is “disturbing” because it’s extremely difficult to assess a patient and make the call as a doctor about whether or not they’ll recover.

Using depression as an example, he says 60 to 70 per cent of patients will fully recover after a year even if they do not use any kind of treatment. He also notes that doctors are only right 47 per cent of the time when they say a patient will never recover from depression — which means “we’ll be wrong more than half the time but we won’t know what half we’ll be wrong for,” when assessing patients for MAID. 

Gamage challenged Gaind, who supports euthanasia for terminally ill people, with the argument that it is discriminatory to deny euthanasia to non-terminally ill people. Gaind responded:

“I’m not legally allowed to drive without glasses,” Gaind says. “That’s not discriminatory. That’s recognizing real and important differences between people.”

In cases such as Mentler’s, when a person is experiencing a mental health crisis, it’s “ludicrous” to say a counsellor is respecting a patient’s autonomy by suggesting MAID, he adds.

Gamage asked the euthanasia lobby group, Dying With Dignity, for a response, which she did not receive. Gamage noted that DWD's website states:

Dying with Dignity’s website has a page about “myths and facts.” This page states it’s a myth that “clinicians are inappropriately recommending MAID to patients who are not eligible or as an alternative to treatment.” Clinicians are only allowed to respond to questions about MAID and “only nurse practitioners and physicians involved in care planning and consent processes have a professional obligation to initiate a discussion about MAID,” the page says.

Gamage explained that this doesn’t line up with Health Canada’s Model Practice Standard, which says clinicians should bring up MAID if they think MAID would align “with the person’s values and goals of care.” 

Andrea Woo reported for the Globe and Mail on August 9 that the counsellor offered MAiD (euthanasia) as a risk assessment tool to gauge how suicidal Mentler was at the time.

I am not a mental health expert, but offering death to determine how suicidal a person is, at the time, appears counter-intuitive. When someone is experiencing suicidal ideation, the offer of death would reinforce the suicidal ideation. Further to that, the counsellor spoke about another patient who died by drowning. Someone who is experiencing suicidal ideation might view that comment as a suggestion that death by drowning is preferable to living.

Mixing mental health counselling and treatment with euthanasia undermines the patient's life. 

 Thank you Kathrin Mentler for telling your story. 

Quebec Death Doctors Don’t Like Being Told to Stay within the Law

This article was published by National Review online on August 9, 2023.

Wesley Smith

By Wesley J Smith

The pattern never changes. Euthanasia is legalized under the promise of “strict guidelines” preventing abuse. As time goes on, the strict guidelines are loosened, and then loosened again. Sometimes the process is slow and sometimes fast. But the direction is all one way.

In addition to that, doctors may assist the suicides or lethally inject patients who do not technically qualify for hastened death. Little, if anything, is done about it.

In the Netherlands, such cases have never resulted in meaningful punishment. Ever. Rather, they have been winked at by the authorities, or if prosecuted (rarely), the courts never punished the offender meaningfully.

After that, the “violation” may become the impetus for further loosening the “strict guidelines” — as in the Dutch doctor who put down her struggling dementia patient fighting to stay alive by having her family hold her while administering the lethal jab. The doctor was found not guilty in court, complimented by the judge for her good intentions, and the law was then changed to allow doctors to decide when to kill in such cases.

Now, add this to the mix: If authorities — ever so gently — try to enforce the rules, euthanasia advocates and medical associations warn that it will chill doctors from dispatching patients. We’ve seen that pattern followed repeatedly in Netherlands — and now in Quebec, where authorities asked doctors to please, please, please, stay within the law, which is very loose already. From the CBC story:

The memo reminds doctors of several guidelines, including that requests due to old age do not meet provincial criteria for the procedure, and an independent opinion from a second doctor isn’t a formality — it’s a requirement. Bureau said any deviation from the rules can be a slippery slope, especially as the commission is seeing an increasing number of requests for MAID.

It’s just too ridiculous. The slippery slope is already slip-sliding away. This is precisely how it works.

Even that gentle reminder was too much for death doctor activists:

However, Georges L’Espérance, a neurosurgeon and the president of the Quebec Association for the Right to Die in Dignity, says the numbers are going up because of the increased understanding that MAID is an option.

He criticizes the memo, saying it might stigmatize the procedure or even dissuade some doctors from providing it.

“The problem is that many doctors will be intimidated by that kind of memo,” he said. “They will say that they don’t want to [administer] any MAID because they have fear.”

So predictable. Some doctors won’t stay within the law. They are rarely caught and will not face discipline or meaningful punishment if they are. And the law will be further loosened as time goes on. Repeat, and repeat again.

Similar article:

• Québec Commission on End-of-Life Care warns that some euthanasia deaths do not comply with the law (Link).

24-year-old Belgian woman approved for euthanasia for mental illness.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Elien Vervaet

Elien Vervaet, a 24-year-old woman from Lokeren Belgium, has made it known on her social media that she has been approved for euthanasia after living with severe depression.

Nieuwsblad in Belgium reported on July 9 that:

Elien Vervaet told her story in an interview with Het Nieuwsblad at the end of last month. In it she said that she has died out after a severe depression that has been depriving her of all energy for six years. The reason for her depression was the entrance exam of a drama course that turned out to be too ambitious. “A year later I played in a play by Theater Antigone. That's where I felt how much I would like to do that. But the realization that I could never do it as a job made me very unhappy. And that feeling has remained,” she said.

The 24-year-old Lokerse, who had also made a podcast about her own euthanasia, described how everything in life felt like a task for her and said she had tried all possible therapies. Three years ago she requested euthanasia for unbearable psychological suffering, and her file was recently approved by two psychiatrists and a doctor from Vonkel, a center for end-of-life questions in Ghent. “It was a relief that the doctor said yes. Since then I've been saying goodbye. For many people that is strange: I will never see them again. That remains a strange thought, but it doesn't scare me off," she said in her conversation with this newspaper.

Vervaet's depression began with a challenging entrance exam, which is not uncommon, but her depression has lasted for many years.

Recently Richmond BC resident Karim Jessa, a member of the Pathways Clubhouse, stated that he opposes euthanasia for mental illness because if euthanasia had been an option when he was struggling with mental illness, he wouldn't be here today.

Jessa stated that there is hope for people living with mental illness and when he got the right help for his mental illness, he no longer wanted to die.

"If (MAiD for mental illness) had been around at that time, I wouldn’t be around here today."

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Maria Rantanen reported for the Richmond News on August 7, 2023 that Richmond resident Karim Jessa, a member of the Pathways Clubhouse, is opposing MAiD (euthanasia) for mental illness. Rantanen reports:

In 2017, his marriage had broken down, he had been unemployed for a long time and he had no steady housing.

He had hit rock bottom, and he told the Richmond News it was only because he was a “coward” that he didn’t take his life at that point.

But, since then, he has connected with Pathways Clubhouse and has slowly found meaning in his life, volunteering, working and connecting with people, despite having depression.

“I am a completely new person today,” Jessa said.

“If (MAiD for mental illness) had been around at that time, I wouldn’t be around here today,”

Jessa stated that there is hope for people living with mental illness and when he got the right help for his mental illness, he no longer wanted to die.

Dr. K. Sonu Gaind said in a discussion paper put out by the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto that there is no reasonable way to say whether mental illness is irremediable, that is, incurable. Rantanen reported Gaind stating:

“When people with sole mental illness get MAiD, we know some of them would have gotten better, even when we wrongly predicted they wouldn’t (we just won’t know which of these patients would have improved instead of getting MAiD)”

Rantanen explains that the Canadian Coalition of Clubhouses, in which Richmond Pathways Clubhouse is a part of, asked their member groups for their position on euthanasia for mental illness.

Pathway's executive director Dave MacDonald, told Rantanen:

Pathways Clubhouse in Richmond “believes in hope and opportunities for those living with mental illness, cannot support MAiD for persons with mental illness as the sole determining factor,"

MacDonald stated further:

"It would go against all that we believe and hope for with our members.”

Pathways Clubhouse is "about people regaining their lives,” Jessa told the News. “We don’t want to say ‘here’s the easy way out.’”

As an organization that supports people with mental illness, it would be “contradictory” to support MAiD for mental illness, he added.

Dr. Sonu Gaind, chief of the Department of Psychiatry at Sunnybrook Hospital, Toronto told the Parliamentary Committee on Assisted Dying that:

“The Ministers have provided false reassurances that we can somehow separate people who are suicidal from those who are seeking psychiatric euthanasia. That is simply not true. In my opinion, that is dangerous misinformation coming from our federal Minister of Justice and our federal Minister of Mental Health and Addictions providing a false sense of safety that does not exist.”

More articles on this topic:

• Psychiatrists: Do we offer hope or do we offer death (Link).
• The majority of Canadian oppose euthanasia for mental health (Link).
• Canada's euthanasia law is the most permissive in the world (Link).
• Canada to delay implementing euthanasia for mental illness (Link).
• Toronto Star: Canada is going too far with euthanasia (Link).
• Globe and Mail Editorial: No to euthanasia for mental disorders (Link).
• Euthanasia panel member quit: Proposals don't adequately protect Canadians with mental illness (Link).
• Offering euthanasia to a suicidal person leads to premature deaths (Link).
• Euthanizing the mentally ill without providing proper supports is reprehensible (Link).
• Euthanasia for mental illness. Killing people with an uncertain prognosis (Link).
• Profound social change with euthanasia for mental illness (Link).
• Euthanasia for mental illness. Myth and Facts (Link).

Québec Commission on End-of-Life Care warns that some euthanasia deaths do not comply with the law.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

CBC News reporter, Rowan Kennedy, reported on August 6 that Dr. Michel Bureau, the President of Québec's Commission on End-of-Life Care sent a letter to euthanasia doctors urging them to stop abusing the law. Kennedy reported:

The head of the commission says he sent out a memo this week to try and clear up any confusion about expanded availability of MAID — which came into effect in June — and advise doctors of the proper application of the law.

Recent reports indicate that Québec euthanasia deaths increased by more than 50% in 2022 giving them the highest euthanasia rate in the world at approximately 6.1% of all deaths. 

According to Bureau, every month 2 or 3 euthanasia deaths do not meet the guidelines. Kennedy reported:

The commission reviews about 500 requests for doctor-assisted death every month, but Bureau says two to three of those monthly applications don't meet provincial guidelines. He says doctors must recognize those cases.

"At times, [physicians] don't know really if they are right or not and at times, they're not," he said.

The memo reminds doctors of several guidelines, including that requests due to old age do not meet provincial criteria for the procedure, and an independent opinion from a second doctor isn't a formality — it's a requirement.

Bureau said any deviation from the rules can be a slippery slope, especially as the commission is seeing an increasing number of requests for MAID.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) believes that more euthanasia deaths fall outside of the law. The reporting procedure requires the doctor who carried out the euthanasia death to also report the euthanasia death. This self-reporting system enables doctors to "cover-up" controversial euthanasia deaths.

EPC asks, "Why have none of the doctors been sanctioned for killing patients outside of the law?"

Dr Georges L'Espérance, the president of the Quebec Association for the Right to Die in Dignity, told CBC news that the number of euthanasia deaths are increasing because of the knowledge that MAID is an option. He also criticizes the memo, saying it might stigmatize the procedure or even dissuade some doctors from providing it.

Clearly L'Espérance is not concerned that doctors are killing people outside of the law.

The Living with Dignity network sent out a media release on August 7 challenging the non-compliance with the euthanasia law.

The euthanasia lobby is pushing for child and infant euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A report by the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (AMAD) that was tabled in the House of Commons on February 15, 2023 called for a further expansion of euthanasia (MAiD) in Canada by recommending, among other things, that euthanasia be expanded to include children considered "mature minors." 

Sign the petition: We oppose Child Euthanasia (Petition Link).

Recommendation 19 in the report stated:

That the Government of Canada establish a requirement that, where appropriate, the parents or guardians of a mature minor be consulted in the course of the assessment process for MAID, but that the will of a minor who is found to have the requisite decision-making capacity ultimately take priority.This mean't that parents or guardians may be consulted, in the euthanasia death of a child that is deemed capable of decision-making.

The NLTimes reported on April 14 that the Dutch government has agreed to extend euthanasia to children, under the age of 12. The article stated:

Health Minister Ernst Kuipers announced in a press release on Friday that he expects the regulation to be implemented within the year. The new guidelines will probably only apply to about five to ten children annually for whom “life termination is the only viable option to end the child's hopeless and unbearable suffering,” said Kuipers.This means that the Netherlands government plans to extend the Groningen Protocol, which applies to newborns, to children between the ages of 1 and 12, rather than amending the euthanasia legislation to include children under the age of 12.Extending the Groningen Protocol is concerning because it permits euthanasia of newborns who are experiencing current or possible future suffering. By using the same definitions for children under 12 as they use for newborns, it is possible that there will be euthanasia deaths of children with treatable conditions.

HOPE Austalia reported on July 14 that Australia's Capital Territory (ACT) has plans to legalize euthanasia with no age restriction. Hope reported on July 14:

Shamelessly, Ms Cheyne recently announced the government’s plans to allow teenagers as young as 14 to be eligible for euthanasia, to do away with “arbitrary” expected death timelines of six to twelve months, and a commitment to exploring euthanasia for dementia patients.

When Canada's Supreme Court struck down the prohibition on euthanasia (Carter decision) in 2015, the Supreme Court indicated that euthanasia would be limited to competent adults who were capable of freely consenting. Once euthanasia is extended to children, it changes the nature of consent. Children are not adults and the nature of their consent can be questionable, and yet death is permanent.

But as bad as it is, the issue goes further. A presentation by Dr Louis Roy for the Québec College of Physicians to The Special Joint Committee on MAiD on September 7, 2022 urged Canada's Federal government to adopt a protocol to permit infant euthanasia. Dr Roy suggested that euthanasia of newborns should only be allowed in rare circumstances, such as a newborn who is unlikely to survive.

The infant euthanasia debate originates from philosphy professor, Peter Singer, who promotes euthanasia and infanticide for newborns with disabilities. In a recent interview for Vox's Future Perfect series Dylan Matthews interviewed Singer who stated:

But suppose that you have a human who lacks the cognitive capacities that enable normal humans to think about their future. That could be an infant. None of us were born with those capacities. Or it could be someone with a severe intellectual disability that was not treatable. For that matter, it could be somebody who didn’t really have much of a future to look forward to because they were terminally ill and they were expecting to die within weeks or months, and their quality of life had fallen to a level where they didn’t think it was worth going on.

Singer justifies the killing of infants and people with disabilities who lack an undefinable level of cognitive capacity.

Child Euthanasia is being debated in Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and it is already legal in Belgium. Newborn euthanasia is already permitted in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Euthanasia of infants with disabilities (infanticide) has been advocated by the Québec College of Physicians and is already approved in the Netherlands based on the Groningen Protocol and Belgium even though infants are not capable of requesting or consenting for death to be inflicted upon them.

The discussion around killing people with disabilities by euthanasia is eugenic. Eugenic euthanasia is the killing of people who society deems "unworthy of life."

Human equality requires that every human being have an equal right to life and no one has the power to kill another human being.

I believe in human equality. I oppose killing people.

Media Release: Memo to Quebec physicians practising medical aid in dying.

For Immediate Release: Link to the original release (Link).

Memo to Quebec physicians practising medical aid in dying

The Commission on End-of-life care had to act

A welcome intervention that unveils some important issues

Montreal, August 7, 2023 – Over the past few days, the Commission on End-of-life care has issued a memo to the hundreds of Quebec physicians who provide medical aid in dying. This information comes from the work of journalists Davide Gentile and Daniel Boily in a text published Saturday in French by Radio-Canada information, then adapted to English by CBC News’ Rowan Kennedy. Living with Dignity citizen network welcomes this intervention by the Commission on End-of-life care and its president, Dr. Michel Bureau. Living with Dignity invites political decision-makers to support the reminders contained in the memo, which highlight important issues that need to be taken very seriously.

The memo addresses three themes, as seen in these excerpts (in quotation marks, our translation) from the e-mail sent by the Commission on end-of-life care:

1) Non-compliance of a growing number of medical aid in dying procedures

"...a growing number of MAiD procedures with very borderline compliance with the conditions contained in the law, and a growing number of non-compliant MAiD procedures administered";

2) The importance of a second physician's opinion and doctor-shopping for a favourable opinion

"...the opinion of a second independent physician confirming the admissibility of MAiD is not just a formality; it must be critical and contemporaneous with the MAiD application";

"Doctor-shopping for a favourable second opinion is not an acceptable practice";

3) Advanced age is not a criterion for MAiD eligibility

"...advanced age and age-related problems do not constitute a serious and incurable disease, and do not justify MAiD".

Comments from Living with Dignity

By Jasmin Lemieux-Lefebvre, coordinator of the Quebec citizen network:

These warnings confirm the information we are receiving on the ground. To avoid refusals, people applying for medical aid in dying may be tempted to turn to MAiD providers who have a broader vision of MAiD access. Doctor-shopping for a favourable second opinion is also a well-known problem in this country. In his essay, No other options, published in The New Atlantis last winter, journalist Alexander Raikin explores the subject in depth in the section Easy to die.

At a conference of the Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers, it was said that “you can ask as many clinicians as you want or need” and that "disagreement doesn't mean you must stop".

It should also be borne in mind that this memo comes at a time when the situation is probably more serious than that described by the Commission on End-of-Life care, which refuses to acknowledge any abuses for the time being. The scientific article The realities of Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada, published by Cambridge Press this summer, addresses the issue of inadequate data collection on MAiD in Canada:

The data are acquired from the MAiD providers via self-reporting. There is no mechanism for objectively, prospectively, or retroactively identifying or uncovering any errors or abuses of the process. Providing assisted suicide and euthanasia outside the parameters of the law remains prohibited. MAiD providers filling out the forms know that any deviation of the key criteria may result in criminal prosecution, making self-declarations of error or deviation unlikely. (see the Inadequate data collection section of the article by Ramona Coelho, John Maher, K. Sonu Gaind and Trudo Lemmens).

On March 7, 2024, medical aid in dying will be available in Quebec to people living with a serious physical impairment (a term adopted by the Act to amend the Act respecting end-of-life care and other legislative provisions and suggested by a group of experts on disability). As of December 7, 2023, it will be required in all palliative care hospices. The revelations of the Commission on end-of-life care must lead to concrete action to avoid the abuses that can be expected.

- 30 -

Media contact:

Jasmin Lemieux-Lefebvre
Coordinator
Living with Dignity citizen network
directionVDD@gmail.com
438 931-1233

Doreen Blake’s Story

The following is a true story but, the names of those involved have been changed.

This story is part of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition story contest (Contest link).

Here is the link to Doreen Blake's Story (Story link).

The author wishes to remain anonymous.

Issues that concerned me in Doreen Blake’s, (D.E.B.’s), palliative “care”...

When Doreen was in Emergency Ward, soon after she entered hospital, her core TEMPERATURE was as low as 32.2 degrees or 32.1 degrees Celsius. So, she had hypothermia. Obviously, temperature was a particular concern for Doreen, which should have been continued to be a health issue to direct careful care towards. I’ve heard that a low body temperature likely contributes to drowsy sluggishness, which Doreen, D.E.B., continued to experience throughout her hospital stay. In Emergency, D.E.B. had an electric plastic blanket with air-filled sections, which gradually warmed D.E.B. above the ideal 37 degrees C. Then she was sent to 6th floor North, (6N), where there was no such blanket, or any electric blanket, or alternate warming system, (other than “too many” heavy normal blankets). Since the nurses thought the many normal blankets were too heavy, they kept removing some of them. D.E.B.’s temperature dropped as low as 34.6 degrees C., though at times it was 35.5 degrees or 35.4 degrees, & eventually even as high as 36.5 degrees. I told Bridgette, charge nurse, I did not want D.E.B. to be frozen to death &, since they had no electric blanket or heating pad on that floor, I’d like D.E.B. to go into the intensive care unit, (ICU), where they had such a blanket. But, Bridgette refused, under the circumstances. I suspect the circumstances were that D.E.B. had been slated for End of Life “Care”. Since Dr. Peadet suggested we buy a heating pad, & I recommended it, M. Crocket bought one & D.E.B. used it. But, she had little patience for it, (or for feeling too hot), & always soon threw off the upper part of her covers, exposing her arms, & demanded the heating pad be removed. So, I realized she seemed warm enough without the heating pad, despite the thermometer’s claims, and I no longer felt that temperature was a big concern for her while she was in the warm hospital. When she returned home to her cooler house, that may have been a concern though. There, on Jan. 21, 2016, C. Ann said they were no longer taking D.E.B.’s vitals. I think that stopping taking D.E.B.’s vitals was arranged to avoid “bothering the poor dear”.

But, in hospital, they took D.E.B.’s temperature daily. They used a rectal thermometer to get a good reading, since their mouth and armpit thermometers did not give good readings. Since D.E.B. had hemorrhoids, she screamed in pain when they checked her temperature. They had no ear thermometer, so I bought one and they used it. Screaming could have made D.E.B.’s voice more hoarse, which was already often difficult enough to understand. 

Here is the link to Doreen Blake's Story (Story link).

People with disabilities are concerned with assisted suicide coercion.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

John Pring reporting for the Disability News Service on July 27, 2023 wrote that disability presenters told UK Members of Parliament that they feared that legalisation would lead to some disabled people being coerced into agreeing to an assisted death, and that restrictions and safeguards that were introduced would gradually be relaxed, as has happened in other countries.

The sessions that were held in May 2023 by the inquiry being carried out by the Commons Health and Social Care Committee into the legalisation of assisted suicide, were just recently uploaded to the committee's website.

Pring reported that:

One of the four disabled opponents – all of whom were associated with disabled-led groups – told the inquiry that no-one had yet come up with a “magic bullet” that would ensure disabled people were protected “from any kind of coercion” or direct or indirect pressure if assisted suicide was legalised.

Another of the four said the idea legalisation promotes that disabled people were “better off dead” than relying on support with their personal care “really devalues our lives”.

The third disabled participant said the “subtle pressure” caused by legalisation, including the guilt that might be felt by disabled people worried about their family spending money to support them when they could opt for an early death “could be really dangerous”.

The fourth disabled participant told the inquiry that there was a “massive preconception that people in the situations for whom these laws get written… in the majority do not want to live with the lives they’ve got, and that is not true”.

Instead of pushing for legalised assisted suicide, they said, the campaigning focus should be on “accessible housing, accessible transport, access to palliative care, access to support… the equipment that you need”.

There were no names associated with the testimony as the inquiry was anonymous.

Pring reported that there were 10 round tables where the majority of the participants supported assisted suicide and were relatives of people who had died with a terminal illness.

Killing a spouse is not loving nor compassionate

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

People Magazine published an article on August 1 by Emily Palmer stating that David Hunter (76) who was recently convicted of manslaughter for killing his wife Janice, on December 18, 2021; did so "out of love."

The story of David and Janice Hunter will be used by the assisted suicide lobby to justify the concept of "compassionate homicide."

David Hunter was convicted of manslaughter, meaning that the judge determined that it was not a pre-meditated murder, and sentenced him to two years in prison. He was then released after being credited for serving 19 months in jail awaiting trial.

A previous article by Ryan Fahey published by the Mirror on May 10 reported that Hunter confessed to killing his "terminally ill" wife. Haematologist Dr Ourania Seimeni said Janice had myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), which is not necessarily terminal. The doctor admitted that 30 per cent of cases of MDS lead to leukaemia.

Fahey also reported that Hunter tried to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter but the charge of murder went forward to trial.

According to the accepted statement of facts, David Hunter killed his wife Janice by asphyxiation and then attempted to cause his own death by consuming a large amount of pills, but medical staff saved his life.

Research by Donna Cohen, a suicide researcher, and others prove that murder / suicide is rarely related to "compassionate" homicide.

Cohan stated the following in a Minnesota Tribune article from March 2009:

When people read reports of a murder-suicide they will often ask the question, was this an Act of love, or desperation? Cohen who has researched this question tries to find answers. 

She stated in the article:

That notion is common in murder-suicides, said Cohen, who has testified before Congress, written extensively and helped train families and physicians. She is a professor of aging and mental health at the University of South Florida and heads its Violence and Injury Prevention Program. 

"If they were consulted, families usually would try to stop it,'' she said. "In fact, murder-suicide almost always is not an act of love. It's an act of desperation."

Cohen also recognizes that murder-suicide does not equate with assisted suicide. Cohen stated:

Some people equate murder-suicide with assisted suicide and the right to control when you will die, Cohen said. "It usually is not the same. This is suicide and murder.''

I accept the idea that David Hunter was emotionally moved by his wife's "wish to die" but I do not accept the concept it is loving or compassionate to kill her.

A loving and compassionate response would be to help her receive pain and symptom relief and to assure her that her life had meaning, purpose and value.